


D4RK3R TH4N 8L4CK

by ferer56



Category: Homestuck
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-04-12
Updated: 2016-04-12
Packaged: 2018-06-01 19:05:33
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,787
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6532546
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ferer56/pseuds/ferer56
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Vriska has finally revealed her 'redemption' for the lie it's always been. In an attempt to reignite her rivalry with her former kismesis, Terezi, she has broken Karkat beyond repair. It is now up to the Seer of Mind to at last destroy the emptiness that is the Thief of Light, before it swallows her and their new existence whole.</p>
            </blockquote>





	D4RK3R TH4N 8L4CK

**Author's Note:**

> A 'what-if' pseudo-sequel of sorts to 'Along Came a Spider', although it also works as a one-shot.

You could nearly taste her scent, her sordid injustice like a trail left for you and you alone. Through the winding cavern you descended, your only companion the steady clacking of your cane. The smell of death pervaded your nostrils, because of course Vriska had brought you to a dying place. You steeled yourself, her flair for histrionics not dissuading you at all. If anything, it only encouraged you. Not that you needed the help. You hurt in every sense, a dull pain you could not divorce from the thoughts rushing madly in your mind. Regret, but bubbling beneath that like a torrid lover forever flitting out of reach was desire too. You—

You halted in a heartbeat, ventral sacs nearly flying out your protein-chute.

She was here.

You half expected her to greet you in her ridiculously gaudy flarping getup. Instead there was only a woman attired in a ratty jacket covering a faded black t-shirt and ill-fitting pants. You half-expected her to be standing at attention, body poised like a meow-beast, ready to pounce. Instead she was stretched lackadaisically on a throne made of stone seemingly oblivious to your presence, hair falling in long dark waves across the smooth granite finish. You half expected a harangue, perhaps a diatribe plucked straight from the journal of the Marquise herself. But there was nary a whisper of the woman Vriska had spent so much of her time sculpting herself to be.

The implication of all your misplaced expectations was not lost on you.

Your feud had grown beyond flarping, beyond sGrub, and beyond even the titanic struggles of your ancestors. This would be the final chapter in the history not of Mindfang and Redglare, but rather of the Thief of Light and the Seer of Mind.

You felt it before she broke the silence, the grim tidings of inevitability coursing through your veins. Ever since those halcyon days of yore when you’d first made the mistake of stepping foot into her web, that same foreboding feeling had never left your side. It had been your constant companion, low and ominous, a ghostly whisper drilling doubt into your mind. But you had turned a blind eye to that truth you’d always known. The gift of sight which had been your curse could never show you what you so stubbornly refused to see. Yet now, without the light to hide within, you finally saw her for the shadow she had always been.

 “Finally!” She started airily, stretching as she roused from her lonely vigil. “You know it’s rude to keep a lady waiting, and I’ve been waiting forever.” You gripped the cane even tighter, bony knuckles chafing against your skin. You would not be fooled again by that sweetly saccharine voice. “I sent you that invitation hours ago! You could at the very least be punctual; I am a busy woman after”--

“Shut up,” you seethed, voice cracking and strained. Her smirk cut like a knife into your mind.

“Oh come now, isn’t this what you wanted? He was always so _dramatic_. If anything you should be pleased I took the time to fix him.”

“Fix!?” You screamed, voice still scratchy and hoarse from your failed attempts to fix what Vriska had broken.

She shrugged bony shoulders that jutted prominently from beneath her loose coat like jagged mountain peaks. “No matter what I did, he was just going to keep trying to kill himself. Now he’ll never leave you, Terezi,” she smiled widely, revealing serrated knives projecting from her gums, “Honestly, you should be thanking me.”

“You stole the light from K”—you bit your lip, teal trickling down your chin--“from my matesprit’s eyes.”

“And I’m still waiting for that ‘thank you', Pyrope.”

You pulled the blade from its prison, tossing the case aside as you held it out for her to see. “This is the only thanks you’ll get, murderer,” you spat, words failing to do justice to the flurry of emotions crawling in your bosom. Acid gurgled acridly within your veins, sweat dripped down your brow, and your eyebrows nestled against one another like long lost lovers. You were shaking. You were shaking and you barely noticed.

But Vriska did.

“Careful, Terezi!” She drawled, “You’re likely to burn yourself with that one.”

“You and I are not alike.”

“Oh, how easily those lies pass between your fangs, and how ardently you try to escape culpability for the wrongs you’ve done,”-- Vriska trailed a finger along her stomach --“At least I’m honest about what I am."

Honest? You want to hear honesty? You take, and take, and take to fill the emptiness within you. You’re nothing but a void. You--”

Vriska laughed, cutting her off before that sharpened tongue could rake across her mind, “And people say I'm dramatic!  Guess I learned a thing or two from you, huh?”

“But you’ll never succeed,” you continued ignoring her mocking comments, righteous indignation thrumming along your spine, it’s tempo a steady beat that propelled your feet step by perilous step closer to the monstrosity before you. “You'll never find happiness, no matter what it is you do. You were hatched like this, a lifeless, rotten thing sustaining yourself on the light of those around you." The words tumbled out of your protein chute, dribbling down your chin like a poison you could not bear to part with.

Vriska snarled, leaping off her throne. With shoulders haunched and fangs bared, her visage burnt with the sudden intensity of a thousand Alternian suns flickering into existence all at once. And just as quickly, they dissipated, extinguished by that smirking sensuality now curling around your ear, beckoning you forward. “That’s it.” She purred, knees trembling loud enough for you to hear the clinking of her bones. She threw her hair back as she breathed in deep, nostrils flaring. “Oh, how I’ve _missed_ you...”

And as much as you tried to ignore it, you could not deny you felt the same. She was pulling you back into her embrace, re-igniting pitched feelings you had tried so hard to bury despite yourself. She was chafing against her own existence, and that fact frightened and excited you in a way even Gamzee could never reach. It had been utterly intoxicating, your rivalry dragging you both down deep into the depths of kismessitude. Her ever-present snark, veiled threats, and cunning schemes kept you crawling back for more. Her obnoxious trill sent waves of black so thick and chunky racing through your veins you felt your blood-pumper might burst altogether. Yours was a race to the bottom, a constant flurry of put-downs, and wounds that time might never heal. And with every piece of her you stole, you saw more of what she wasn’t. More of what you had always refused to see. And you had become addicted to exposing Vriska’s lurid core: tearing, gnashing, and eating away at her. Hoping to one day find some substance beneath the appetizing nothings your fangs always stripped away. As if you had not known all along.

That is, until Karkat pulled you out.

You could still feel the subtle shock of unkempt hair that had fallen along your shivering frame. Feel the smoothness of his claws trailing gently across your thighs, awakening you to a world you had so steadfastly ignored. He had caressed you where she had only dragged equisitely manicured nails, had whispered sweetness in your ear where she had only spat bile.

He was gone. Gone because of an idiotic mistake you had made in the heat of passion, a passion you had not struggled hard enough to contain. Flashes of silver hair weaved throughout your mind, cold, emotionless eyes staring upon your naked, shivering form. The taste of cherries lingered on your lips, a taste at once familiar and yet oh so foreign and exciting. Red eyes burning with desire had stared upon their twin, an conundrum no less puzzling without the gaudy shades that were its closest friend. It was an enigma whose riddle you were more than happy to unravel kiss by shuddering kiss. More than that, however: you hoped to discover yourself within the burning ochre of that harsh obisdian gaze.

Even after that torrid night, you were no closer to unraveling the reasons you so consistently sought your self-destruction. You had only succeeded in pushing your matesprit to the brink.  And in his despondency, Karkat had gotten enmeshed in the spider's web. A web he had so valiantly freed you from. A debt you could now never repay. You wanted to tear yourself apart almost as ardently as you wanted to tear apart your eternal nemesis.

Almost.

And it was for that reason that here you stood, finally gazing at long last upon an emptiness that even your blindness could no longer hide you from. It was a taunting, lurid gaze that Vriska now held you in, her absence threatening to spill out from the contours of her body and seep into the reality you and your friends had worked so hard to build. You hated yourself for wanting this, for feeding into her megalomaniacal delusions. But you had missed this. Oh, had you _missed_ this.

She reached into her jacket, pulling out the final remnants of Mindfang’s fearsome power. They crackled with energy in her calloused grasp, and you instinctively raised your blade before you. She smirked, before throwing them onto the ground, her greatest treasure under the spell of her manipulations. You didn’t need eyes to know the result. But with ears you heard the weighty thud of a boot strike the ground. The piercing cry of shattering glass echoed throughout the rafters, stretching onwards into eternity, breaking the dull quiet that had so briefly ensconced you both.  
Your breath hitched: she had severed the final link between herself and her ancestor.

“This is the only thing that matters now,” she began, her desolation creeping closer, “No mind games, no tricks, no weapons: just you, me, and our hate.”

You shook your head, bangs ghosting across your sightless eyes. “This isn’t black anymore, Vriska.” 

“It’s so much darker than that.”

“It’s justice,” you breathed, tossing aside your sword. You flexed your claws, the thick keratin enjoying the taste of your fleshy palms. You could almost hear the ectasy rushing through her veins. You were feeding into what she wanted. But it’s what you wanted too. The familiar dance had begun anew, if it had never truly ended.

“You hide your bloodlust behind such pretty words.”

“And you hide yours behind false gentility. There's no need. I already know what it is you are."

"Oh? And what am I?"

"You're a _wound_ , Vriska," you drawled, letting every syllable linger like a noxious mist in the fetid air currently suffocating your nostrils, "A wound in _life_ itself.”

She froze, her demeanor petrifying before your very eyes. The only sign of life within that marble statue was the smell of her delicious beating heart, blueberry pumping thickly in her veins. The sudden stillness did not last long. Whatever meager auspices of civility she had maintained crumpled like the sails of a war-torn galleon under cannon-fire. She charged ahead wildly, mane flowing wildly behind her back, crashing through her every half-hearted promise, her every bitter non-apology.

There was no way to prepare for the first blow that dashed across your cheek.

The same could not be said for the second.

You snarled as teal tore into her cheek, knee crashing upwards against her bulk. She didn't so much as flinch, driving her fist forward. Pain blossomed like a flower within your mind. It hurt. Just not as much as you deserved. You grasped her horn, wrenching the gnarled spire towards you. She hissed, grasping your own in retaliation. Your skulls knocked together, not nearly hard enough to forget the hate that had bound you two since  your hatching. Her emptiness licked you like the embers of a flame. Cobalt eyes stared blankly into your red, as bright and cherry as--

You screamed, winding up your free arm to smash coherence back into the blue-blooded bitch. Blood trickled down her lips as your fist met flesh, her jaw rattling. You still felt her gaze upon you, like spotlights sweeping across your soul.

"Is that it?" She whispered, hocking something more than spit from between her bloody gums. "I thought you were flushed for the little wriggler. I--"

You didn't hear the rest of her little speech, her voice drowned out by the buzzing in your 'pan. Flashes of tangled limbs burst like fireworks inside your mind. Screaming, and snarling; gnashing, and shouting were the soundtrack for your assault. With every blow you didn't feel, you slipped deeper into that pleasant rage. It was intoxicating, as control slipped from your dainty fingers. You felt her smile brand your skin, her weight crumple beneath your own. It was what she'd always wanted, what you'd been so loathe to give.

And you couldn't take it back.

Not until your fingers scrabbled along a pillar of flesh, and squeezed as if to lop the very plateau from it's foundations. Not until her choking gasps knocked you back into the real. Not until you felt what you had done: her face mottled a sickly bruising blue, horns bent and cracked, blood seeping into a pitiful pool besides her.

She shook her head, a shrill mocking laugh escaping the darkest depths of her battered thorax. "How fucking appropriate!" She managed between gasps for air, her ribcage shaking with ebullience.

Your brow furrowed, grip loosening ever so slightly. "What are you talking about?"

"This!" She shouted, arm darting up to grasp your neck. Cold flooded your skin, as you tried to catch your breath. But it was only for an instant, her hand falling to her chest. You shivered more frightfully at her absence, wanting her emptiness to cosset you yet again. You felt her veins pop beneath your embrace. "This-" she coughed, bloody fingers trying to claw you off her windpipe--"isn't what I wanted," she whimpered.

"That doesn't matter now," you seethed, stamping the words into her psyche.

At last she trembled, before propping herself on the haunches of her elbows, hot unsteady breaths now inches from your face. You could smell her blood, blue and brilliant, streaking down her cheeks. "Did it ever?" 

You gulped, resolve faltering as that saccharine voice once again wheedled it's way so pleasantly past a door to your mind you'd always 'forgotten' to lock. Your fingers slipped down her collar, ghosting along the remnants of your tryst. Suddenly, her arms wrapped around your back, pulling you close to her embrace. You felt her pitiful heart, gasping for a life that could never quite sustain itself.

" _No_ ," she whispered, but not with words that reached your ear, " _Finish it_." You shook your head fervently in reply, hair a wild mess. " _I'll burn it if you don't, burn the whole gog-damn thing to the ground_."

A flurry of emotions rose in your breast, a tide whose ebb and flow you could not hope to burden. The conflicting feelings drove you mad, endlessly vacilating from one state to the next, each similarly unable to do what needed to be done. but you'd done this before, done the right thing despite yourself. Why was it so different now? You felt her voice inside your mind, curling around the bristling organ, looking for an opening. You nearly swallowed your tongue, as you let her footsteps slink further into your mind.

Your hand jerked unnaturally, grasping for her neck with quivering digits. A squeeze. Her arms slackened around your back. Tears that weren't your own smattered bright blue cheeks, mixing with her fluids as they coursed off into the infinity you were sending her to. The taste of blueberry filled your lips, a fleeting moment before her back struck against the floor. And yet, slowly, a smile curled along her lips, perhaps for the first time.

What you would have given to see it for yourself.

You felt her ghostly tendrils slip from within your mind, fading into that blissful eternity that might finally offer solace to the lonely Troll you'd befriended one chilly afternoon--

Your thoughts fled the scene as you fell onto the floor, trembling and bleary eyed, fingernails caked with skin that felt so foreign against your own. In your cowardice, you had at last uncovered the answer to the riddle you had searched for so earnestly in others. 

And it hurt.

It hurt and didn't stop.

Even as the scream tore its way out of your lungs, echoing throughout every distant corner of Paradox Space. 

It didn't stop hurting.

And you knew it never would. 


End file.
